I have just bought a new Dell Studio XPS 13. I haven't been able to find any information for installing Arch Linux on this machine. It is a very nice looking laptop, and runs fast and smooth. I have had a successful install (32-bit only, 64-bit). I still have a few things to get working, like the Bluetooth, and media buttons.

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[[Category:Dell]]

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I have just bought a new Dell Studio XPS 13. I have not been able to find any information for installing Arch Linux on this machine. It is a very nice looking laptop, and runs fast and smooth. I have had a successful install (32-bit only, 64-bit). I still have a few things to get working, like the Bluetooth, and media buttons.

System Specs:

System Specs:

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The basic installation performs normally, with the core cd, also the wireless modules ( Atheros wifi card ) were well recognised and worked out of the box.

The basic installation performs normally, with the core cd, also the wireless modules ( Atheros wifi card ) were well recognised and worked out of the box.

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== Video Card ==

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=== Nvidia 9500 M (9400+9200) ===

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It works well with this /etc/X11/'''xorg.conf''', the really important feature is Busid "PCI:3:0:0". There are also some touchpad configuration with two-finger scrolling and tapping.

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<pre>

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Section "ServerLayout"

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Identifier "Layout0"

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Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0

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InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"

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InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"

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EndSection

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Section "Files"

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EndSection

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Section "Module"

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Load "dbe"

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Load "extmod"

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Load "type1"

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Load "freetype"

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Load "glx"

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Load "synaptics"

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EndSection

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Section "InputDevice"

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# generated from default

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Identifier "Mouse0"

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Driver "synaptics"

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Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"

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Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"

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Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"

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Option "VertScrollDelta" "80"

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Option "HorizScrollDelta" "80"

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Option "SHMConfig" "on"

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Option "Emulate3Buttons" "on"

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Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "true"

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Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "true"

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Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" "10"

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Option "TapButton1" "1"

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Option "TapButton2" "2"

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Option "TapButton3" "3"

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EndSection

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Section "InputDevice"

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# generated from default

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Identifier "Keyboard0"

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Driver "kbd"

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EndSection

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Section "Monitor"

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Identifier "Monitor0"

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VendorName "Unknown"

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ModelName "Unknown"

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HorizSync 28.0 - 33.0

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VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0

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Option "DPMS"

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EndSection

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Section "Device"

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Identifier "Device0"

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Driver "nvidia"

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VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"

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Option "SLI" "Auto"

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Option "NoLogo" "true"

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Option "DPMS" "true"

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Option "TripleBuffer" "true"

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# Reduces the interrupts

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Option "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "True"

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#force Powermizer to a certain level at all times

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## level 0x1 = highest

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## level 0x2 = med

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## level 0x3 = lowest

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# Option "RegistryDwords" "PowerMizerLevelAC=0x3"

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# Option "RegistryDwords" "PowerMizerLevel=0x3"

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# Auto powermizer option

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# Option "RegistryDwords" "PerfLevelSrc=0x3333"

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Busid "PCI:3:0:0"

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Option "RenderAccel" "True"

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Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "True"

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Option "AddARGBLXVisuals" "On"

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EndSection

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Section "Screen"

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Identifier "Screen0"

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Device "Device0"

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Monitor "Monitor0"

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DefaultDepth 24

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Option "TwinView" "False"

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SubSection "Display"

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Depth 24

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EndSubSection

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EndSection

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Section "Extensions"

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Option "Composite" "Enable"

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EndSection

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</pre>

== Power Management ==

== Power Management ==

=== HDD '''important issue''' ===

=== HDD '''important issue''' ===

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=== [[pm-utils|Hybernation - Suspend]] ===

=== [[pm-utils|Hybernation - Suspend]] ===

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This feature works very well, the only thing you have to set is your /boot/grub/menu.lst , if you don't set the option "resume" your computer doesn't resume after hybernation, so add resume=/your/swap/partition like in this example:

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This feature works very well, the only thing you have to set is your /boot/grub/menu.lst , if you do not set the option "resume" your computer does not resume after hybernation, so add resume=/your/swap/partition like in this example:

<pre>

<pre>

title Arch Linux

title Arch Linux

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Line 63:

</pre>

</pre>

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=== CPU Frequency Scaling ===

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I was not able to get hibernate to work correctly b/c of my NVIDIA drivers. I am now running x86_64. I am not sure if that has anything to do with it.

Now we need to see what the processor can do. Most likely yours will be the same as mine, but check just to be sure, we don't want you burning out your processor.

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# suspend

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Issue this command to check out the specs:

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echo -n mem > /sys/power/state

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<pre>

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cpufreq-info

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</pre>

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Then you should make your /etc/conf.d/cpufreq file look like this:

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# restore video card data from the temporary file

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<pre>

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# on resume

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[phr0zn@ragnarok ~]$ cat /etc/conf.d/cpufreq

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#configuration for cpufreq control

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# valid governors:

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cat $TMP_FILE > /proc/bus/pci/$ID

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# ondemand, performance, powersave,

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# conservative, userspace

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governor="ondemand"

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# valid suffixes: Hz, kHz (default), MHz, GHz, THz

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# switch back to virtual terminal 7 (running X)

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min_freq="1.6GHz"

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chvt 7

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max_freq="2.4GHz"

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</pre>

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Now you can start cpu frequency scaling by issuing this command:

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# remove temporary file

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<pre>

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rm -f $TMP_FILE

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/etc/rc.d/cpufreq start

</pre>

</pre>

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You also want to add 'cpufreq' to your DAEMONS array in the /etc/rc.conf

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This should suspend your laptop to RAM when the lid is closed.

Revision as of 04:09, 24 October 2012

I have just bought a new Dell Studio XPS 13. I have not been able to find any information for installing Arch Linux on this machine. It is a very nice looking laptop, and runs fast and smooth. I have had a successful install (32-bit only, 64-bit). I still have a few things to get working, like the Bluetooth, and media buttons.

System Specs:

Processor

Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8600 @ 2.40GHz

RAM Memory

4 GB DDR3

Webcam

2.0 Megapixel Webcam

Hard Disk

320GB SATA 7200 rpm HDD

500GB SATA 7200 rpm HDD

Video Card

NVIDIA 9400M

NVIDIA 9500M (9400M G + 9200M GS)

Wireless

Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller

Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter

The basic installation performs normally, with the core cd, also the wireless modules ( Atheros wifi card ) were well recognised and worked out of the box.

Power Management

HDD important issue

With the Western Digital hard drive (not SSD), there is an important issue: using the APM (Advanced Power Management) there are too nomerous spin-down, that can damage the hard drive [1].
To confirm this issue you have to install smartmontools:

# pacman -S smartmontools

And you have to run multiple times this command (once in a minute for like 5 minutes):

# smartctl -a /dev/sda|grep Load_Cycle_Count

If the number under Load_Cycle_Count is increasing in a small amount of time (1 or 2 in a minute) you have this issue.

The problem is easily solvable using laptop-mode-tools.
In your /etc/laptop-mode/laptop-mode.conf you have to set:

This disable all power management systems of the hard drive cause a light heat up (maybe).
The same behaviour can be obtained running this command:

# hdparm -B 255 /dev/sda

the 255 number is the power-management level, in a range of 1-255 where 1 is maximum powersaving and 255 powersaving disabled. However setting the value to 253 causes a lot of spin-down.
Setting the spin-down feature (it parks the heads away from disk) however can save hdd in case of fall.

This feature works very well, the only thing you have to set is your /boot/grub/menu.lst , if you do not set the option "resume" your computer does not resume after hybernation, so add resume=/your/swap/partition like in this example: